


a speck amongst a million trees

by pro_daydreamer



Category: In Strange Woods (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hypothermia, it's cold and they're lost, jacob is dying and peregrine is nearly dying, this is literally just the two siblings suffering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29629230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pro_daydreamer/pseuds/pro_daydreamer
Summary: It’s cold. Too cold.Peregrine wonders how many hours it’s been. Time is obscured, the towering trees blur around her and she is lost in the darkness.How could they have known this would happen?At different points in time, Jacob and Peregrine are both lost in the forest. Peregrine makes it out alive, Jacob doesn't.
Relationships: Jacob Wells & Peregrine Wells
Kudos: 5
Collections: Happy Birthday Marcus





	a speck amongst a million trees

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thefigureinthecorner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefigureinthecorner/gifts).



> I wrote most of this in a blur and I'm not entirely sure what happened but I hope you like it!  
> Happy Birthday, Marcus!  
> Please enjoy both of the Wells siblings suffering in the woods.

It’s cold.  _ Too cold _ . 

Peregrine wonders how many hours it’s been. Time is obscured, the towering trees blur around her and she is lost in the darkness.

How could they have known this would happen? 

The snow flurries around her and she drags her feet through the dense cold. 

This wasn’t the plan. She’d prepared for everything, anything that the forest could throw at her. But the snow and the cold are seeping into her bones and her body is beginning to shiver. They’d known this  _ could _ happen, but the reality setting in is harsher than she’d imagined.

The wind whips through her, making her jacket billow and blowing flakes of snow into her eyes. She can’t see where she’s been anymore, her footprints behind her have been blown over and the trees all look the same, everything covered over with a thick layer of snow.

Her breath clouds the air in front of her and she tries to warm her hands, rubbing them together, trying to think of what Howl would do, what Howl would say.

She has to fall back on her principles. She has to think. 

There must be a way out, a way back.

_ How could he have known? Jacob clutches at his suit jacket, drawing it close around himself in a desperate attempt at warmth. How could he have expected this? _

_ The snow is drifting into his eyes, freezing his eyelashes and making it hard to blink. _

_ He glances back, seeing his footprints being erased behind him, leaving only a blank expanse of white stretching out through the forest.  _

_ No one can follow him. _

_ A part of him thinks,  _ **_Good_ ** _. A part of him is thankful. He’d rather be alone. After everything that happened— _

_ It might be best to let things go.  _

_ The walk isn’t too far, he can find his way back. _

She can’t do this alone, Peregrine realises. Eric and Woodsley are out there too, on their own. Together, they have the best chance of survival, the best chance of getting through this. 

The clearing. She has to find the clearing. That’s her best chance of finding her friends, of surviving.

She turns, beginning to trudge slowly back in the direction she had come from, trying desperately to recognise anything, any boulder, any tree. There must be something. A bloom of salt on her tongue makes her realise she’s bitten her lip, drawing blood. In the cold, her mouth is numb and the pain barely registers.

It’s a steady push forward, noting her position, tracking her way through the trees. This path looks familiar, but as she looks to her left, that path looks familiar too. Stretching out in every direction, she can see the same trees, the same shrubs and rocks. It all looks the same as far as she can see. 

She looks to the sky, wishing for it to clear. The stars could show her the way. Howl had taught her how to find the North Star, she could use that to find the right path. But as the snow flurries down around her, any hope for a clear sky vanishes from her mind. 

Her instincts have to be right. She has to trust herself. The path in front of her stretches out, drenched in uncertainty. It’s the only way she can think of.

As she follows the path, she thinks she sees more familiar trees, a log laying across the path. She’d seen that before, hadn’t she? The doubt creeps in the corners of her mind, dragging her in every direction but the path in front of her. 

It could be minutes or hours before she finally finds herself stumbling into the clearing Howl had stopped at before. This is familiar, this she knows. The trees that surround her are a welcome sight and she leans against one as a gust of wind rips through the clearing, shaking the branches.

The cold air sends a chill through her and her teeth begin to chatter. She pulls her jacket tight around her, ducking into the shelter of a tree as the wind howls in her ears. It must die down eventually, surely. 

She presses herself up against the trunk of the tree, not paying attention as the bark scratches at her back and her bag catches on low twigs. The ground is icy beneath her feet and she tries to anchor herself, letting herself rest, finally, finally—

There’s a loud crack from the other side of the clearing and Peregrine watches as a large branch falls from a tree, crashing down into the snow. Shit. If the winds are that strong, she needs to build a shelter as quickly as possible.

She swings her bag down from her shoulder, her fingers fumbling for the zip when a second, louder crack echoes through the clearing. 

Peregrine barely has time to look up before she feels the branch hit her back and the wind is knocked out of her as she is pinned to the ground under the heavy weight and the drenching, freezing piles of snow.

_ The woods surrounding Jacob are unfamiliar. He thinks he should know his way. The shack is somewhere he’s gone to and from before, many times. It doesn’t make sense that he can’t find his way home. _

_ He’s been walking for hours, and he thinks that he’s passed the same tree at least three times. He needs a better view of his surroundings but the snow and the branches make it hard to make out the way.  _

_ Several feet away from him is a boulder and Jacob starts towards it, dragging his now soaked feet through the snow. It feels far away, even as he nears it, the effort draining everything he has.  _

_ With a stumble, he begins to drag himself up onto the rock, trying to find some foothold beneath the layers of white. It’s hard, but he manages to scramble up on top of it, pulling himself up to look around him. It still looks pretty much the same but the trees seem to thin out in one direction. _

_ That must be the edge of the woods. That must be the way out.  _

_ Jacob looks down, preparing to step down off the rock when he feels his foot lose grip on the boulder. His ankle twists as he slams into the ground and as he lies in the snow, he feels his shirt and jacket slowly become drenched as he attempts to breathe slowly through the pain. _

Peregrine is trapped against the ground, the weight against her chest squeezing the air from her lungs. She feels lightheaded, from pain or lack of oxygen, she’s not sure.

What would Howl say? What would Howl do?

Get out from beneath the branch, that’s her first priority. Lying in snow, barely able to breathe, is not where she wants to be. 

Peregrine tests out pushing the branch off of her, but her arms give out before she can manage. It’s too heavy. She wonders if she can leverage one side, lift it onto the root of a tree and attempt to slip out from beneath it.

It almost works, the branch rests unsteadily on a root and Peregrine lets out an amazed laugh, beginning to push her way out.

Before her jacket snags on a twig. She tries to yank free, tries to squirm out of it but she is well and truly trapped.

A gust of wind blows snow into her face and she almost chokes, her chest aching as she coughs, constricted by the weight pressing down on her insistently.

She needs help. She can’t do this alone. She needs someone to find her.

_ It’s a long, difficult process, dragging himself into a nearby bush. His ankle hangs limp as he claws his way through the snow, fingers barely able to move anymore. The snow collapses beneath him as he crawls into the shelter of the branches. It’s not much, but as he curls around himself, injured leg stretched out in front of him, he thinks it could help. _

_ He fumbles for his phone in his pocket, knowing now that there is no way he can make it out of this forest alone. No matter what he does, he can’t find his way through miles of snow with a broken ankle. _

_ His phone barely registers his fingers as he slowly taps out his mom’s number, lifting the phone to his ear. Silence. He checks the screen. No signal. Of course there would be no signal out here. What could he expect?  _

_ Even as he knows it will fail, he types out a message to his mom. _

**_Need your help. I don’t know where I am._ **

_ Predictably, the message doesn’t send and he is left staring at his screen as it warns him that his battery will die soon.  _

_ All he can do is hope against all hope that someone will find him. That someone will care enough to come looking. _

Peregrine can only think of Jacob. He was always the one she called for help, he would be able to lift this branch from her, help her to her feet with a smile and a sly comment. 

She needs him now. 

Peregrine wants more than anything for her brother to find her, for her brother to be here, to be alive. For her family to pull her from the forest and wrap her in a blanket, pushing a warm mug into her hands.

It’s a fight to keep the tears from falling. She can’t cry, not right now. Crying is dehydrating, she repeats in her head. Tears would only freeze on her face and that would benefit no one.

Her chest heaves as a ragged sob tears through her, sending a burst of pain across her ribs.

Someone has to find her. Someone needs to find her. If she remains here, alone, she may as well be dead.

_ There’s truly no one to blame but himself. Jacob stares up at the dark sky, watching the snowflakes flutter down.  _

_ It’s peaceful, now the wind has eased, and Jacob can feel sleep creeping up on him. _

_ He wonders what time it is, it has to be close to morning. The darkness has taken on a different colour and the clouds above him look lighter. _

_ How long has he been out here, he wonders. Has anyone noticed that he’s still gone? _

_ He moves to turn on his phone, trying to check the time, when he realises that he can’t move his fingers. Fuck. He tries again, tensing his hand, throwing every bit of energy he has left at moving something, anything.  _

_ His fingers hang limp. _

_ It dawns on him then that there is no one here to find him. _

_ His eyes begin to drift closed and it dawns on him just how tired he is. Maybe if he rests….just for a little while….maybe when he wakes…. _

_ He looks up at the sky one last time, at a break in the clouds letting through a sliver of sky. Maybe someone will find him, take him home to his family. _

_ Maybe he’ll be okay.  _

_ His unsteady grasp of consciousness slips through his fingers and his eyes flutter shut. _

_ A final thought crosses his mind.  _ **_Peregrine_ ** **.**

Peregrine gives up straining her arms to try and lift the branch from her, instead curling up as tightly as she can to preserve any body heat she has left. 

If she can ride this out long enough for one of her friends to find her, for Howl to find her, for her mom to find her...

She could survive this, she thinks.

She  _ can _ survive this.

The cold is still slowly sinking into her skin but now there’s fire in her veins. Stay alive, she tells herself, you just have to stay alive.

And then from a distance, there is a yell, a single shout, “Peregrine!”


End file.
